Karen Lumley, MP for Redditch, gave the keynote address at conference on high speed rail organised by law firm Pinsent Masons in Birmingham.

The conference looked at high speed rail not just in Britain but in the global context.

The scheme has become a hot topic in the UK as the Government decides whether to go ahead with the new rail line from Birmingham to London and later to Leeds and Manchester.

The proposal has proved controversial and has provoked opposition from communities the line will run.

Ms Lumley has been a strong advocate of HS2. She said: “HS2 will bring some of the economic growth that the south east has seen in recent years to the Midlands and help to bridge the north-south divide”

Chief engineer of High Speed 2 Ltd Professor Andrew McNaughton was the principal speaker and examined at HS2 in a global context.

He said other countries had been developing high speed rail for many years

“Japan had its first line in 1964, three years before British Rail phased out steam trains,” he said.

He added that there was a good precedent for HS2 in the Frankfurt to Cologne line, a distance very similar to Birmingham to London and a route that has proved highly successful.

Mr McNaughton also drew attention to the increase in rail traffic in England in recent years and the need to provide additional capacity by early in the next decade, by which time the current infrastructure would be creaking at the seams.

He said focussing on speed was misleading and the essence of high speed rail involved moving large numbers of passengers on dedicated lines between large centres of population.

“The latest high speed trains carry the equivalent of two jumbo jets right into the heart of city destinations,” he added.

Pinsent Masons have worked on rail projects around the world, including the Johannesburg to Pretoria line completed for the World Cup.

Partner Patrick Twist pointed to the caution in England to such large-scale projects.

He said: “HS2 will involve building 110 miles of line by 2025. By comparison China has built 1,000 miles in the last three years. It will be the work of generations to complete the new line.

“HS2 will be an essential part of providing England with an infrastructure fit for the 21st century.”